123 Catch in action!

For all those followers who joined my 3D design SEP class in 2015, take a look at this cool use of 3D imaging used to bring shipwreck salvage and artifacts to life. And the amazing use of commercial 3D printers to make metal objects.

Back in 2014, there was great hope for personal and mid-sized 3D printers to revolutionize creating on an "as needed", day to day scale, that really didn't happen. But on a larger scientific scale, such as 3D printing in space technology, the future is very promising. We covered in class back in 2015 how the international space station already uses 3D printers to make replacement parts for itself in space. In this case, however, 3D printing technology has evolved to successfully making rockets. Big ones. Check out the start up, Relativity, who recently created the biggest 3D printer in the world, Stargate, with a goal to develop using it to create the "3-D-printed Aeon 1 rocket engine as the heart of its low-cost Terran rocket, with an eye toward starting commercial launches in 2021". They currently create fuel tanks and engines using Stargate and recently created a 14 foot tall fuel tank in a few days, whereas in the past, not using 3D tools, this type of tank would take up to a year to create! And in turn, reduce the cost of launching rockets into space by 80%.

Additionally, other new startups, such as Desktop Metal (founder John Hart is from the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity at MIT) have developed a printing process they say is 100x faster than single head laser technology. In fact, they claim they have a printer that can make 150 metric metal tons of metal in a year for use, starting in 2019, in the vehicle/machinery manufacturing industry (BMW and Caterpillar are early adopters). And machine learned design, where 3D software creates designs for high stress parts without hot spots, meaning through algorithms, the software "knows" how to reinforce weak points through design to reduce potential product failure (such as cracks and breaking points).